On This Night
by Myomi-chan
Summary: "I wish I could have seen K7 perform together..." A girls dying wish... She thought it would be a good way to leave something of herself behind, to be smiled at and remembered by. She didn't expect it to go viral.
1. Chapter 1

こんな夜に: On This Night

**Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.**

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Chapter 1: Believe

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The cough was not the only sound, but among the rustling of sheets and the humming of the air conditioner and the clicking of keys, it stood out like lavender amongst a sea of daffodils. It was small, and frail, and so quiet it was painfully obvious it was someone's best attempt at keeping quiet.

But the cough was quickly followed by another. They gradually increased in force until it was impossible for her to contain them; and all the while they burned and tore at her throat, her chest, her entire body-

She gasped, leaning backwards. Her hair pooled over the pillow like murky water, tendrils of a blue so dark it was almost black. Her eyes were screwed closed, tight, shut, as if this would somehow keep the pain from coming back. As quickly as it had come, it had vanished, and now she sat alone, gasping in a vacant hospital room with plain white walls, skin pale and trembling and shivering, and meanwhile the bare, bare moon looked down at her, laughing at her as it let white beams of light fall through the clear, glass window.

Laughing because if she didn't laugh, she would cry, because the scars on her body only reminded her of an empty past.

The moon was so like her.

Hinata slowly opened her eyes; her Mother had often told her they resembled the moon. Her Father had said they resembled pearls.

She thought they resembled the hospital room: lonely, plain, BORING, just like her. As good as vacant.

She turned her attention to the laptop sitting in her lap.

Hei!K7

Members: Haruno Sakura

Sai

Uzumaki Naruto

Former: Uchiha Sasuke

She sighed softly and closed the window, and then shut the laptop off. She closed the lid.

This laptop alone brought color to her moon-pearl-vacant eyes.

It came in the form of YouTube and music videos.

She was, she liked to think, the ultimate fangirl: bedridden but still dedicated. Her computer was chock-full of pictures and videos and music related to her favorite band.

K7.

It was short for "Konoha 7," a band formed three and a half years ago by Hokage Entertainment Industries. Hei!K7 was the official name, but fans usually shortened it to K7. For years, the group had dominated music charts, grabbing #1 so often it had almost been deemed a monopoly.

But then they had disbanded.

Uchiha Sasuke had left to pursue a solo career with O-Sound Box Corporation ("Time to learn your OBC's") and ever since, Uzumaki Naruto and Haruno Sakura had struggled to stay within the top 5.

Around that time, Hinata's health had begun to decline. It was a coincidence that brought twice the pain: the day her heart was broken became the day her life was pronounced a time bomb. She had something obscure, something the doctors said was fatal. She knew what the disease was, but she didn't care to ever learn its name. She was dying, and she could feel it. Her one comfort in life had been the music Hei!K7 had brought into her life, but that had been ripped away from her as well. It was brutally unfair, and she knew it, and she couldn't accept it.

But she couldn't fight it, either. It frustrated her to no end. She hated dying. It hurt like hell and felt twice as bad.

She put her orange laptop on the empty bedside table beside her and flopped back onto the bed with a wince and a frustrated huff.

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That night, she dreamed of him.

A golden boy with a golden smile and a golden voice.

In her dream, he was onstage, singing something heartfelt. It was so mesmerizingly beautiful and sad that she cried in her dream.

He hopped off-stage and joined her, patting her consolingly as he continued crooning, this time directly to her. And she held onto him, and he held her back, and she looked into his blue eyes and began to tell him how she felt, how she'd always-

A series of coughs brought her back to reality. Her head swam as she came to so suddenly, and she felt her eyes water.

She had been so close, yet so, SO far.

Perhaps it was this thought that made her do it. Maybe it was the fact that she still felt the haze of her dream hanging over her, maybe it was her heart finally, FINALLY taking charge.

She grabbed her laptop and turned the webcam on as she went. As soon as the desktop greeted her, she began recording.

"Hey," she rasped, choking back the coughs. "My name is Hyuuga Hinata. I'm 17 years old and a huge Hei!K7 fan." She coughed quickly, then turned back to the screen, blinking tears back. "They say I have a year to live, if I'm lucky." She turned the laptop and webcam around in her lap.

"This is my room, number 398. It's so empty, just like my eyes." She leaned in to the webcam. "See? Hyuuga all have eyes like these." She leaned back, wiping her forehead in an attempt to control another coughing fit. "I'm 17, and Im going to die before I get to live. It's so wrong." She shook her head, tears in her eyes again. She wiped them away furiously. "I wish I could see Hei!K7 perform together... I wish I could do lots of things, but I can't. I could leave, if I wanted to -" she gestured to the door of the room - "but there's no point. I died the day K7 disbanded. More than anything, I wanted to meet them, and hear them, but I wanted to go to college, and become something..." She bit her lip. "I wish I could LIVE."

She stopped recording.

Almost as if she were dreaming again, she uploaded it to YouTube. It took time, but it made it.

She closed her laptop, satisfied, and went to sleep.

She thought it would be a good way to leave something of herself behind, to be discovered by family years down the road, to be smiled at by someone browsing around.

She didn't expect it to go viral.

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**AN: I felt angsty today. Don't worry, it will have a happy ending! :D I so love my happy endings!**

**I had this idea and just went for it! Tell me if ya liked it!**


	2. Chapter 2

こんな夜にこんな夜に: On this night

**Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Masashi Kishimoto, so don't tell the men in white coats that I was here!**

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Chapter 2: Searching

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He woke up because someone threw a llama at him.

Not a real llama, of course. Even he, Uzumaki Naruto, Dunce Among Dunces, could tell that what smashed into his face was not a living creature.

But it still hurt.

"Naruto!"

He moaned and sat up, rubbing his eyes as he glanced at the alarm clock by his bedside.

"Sakura?" he asked, squinting up at the form towering over him. He knew he should probably be cowering in terror, but it was still too early for that.

6.45, to be precise.

"Get up," Haruno Sakura commanded. She never SAID anything to him anymore; now it was always a command, or a scolding, or a lecture. But they hadn't actually TALKED, not since a year ago...

"It's too early," he mumbled stubbornly, picking up the llama. It was furry, and wore a red cape, and had a nose sewed off-center and beady black eyes that perched askew on its face. "Is this yours?" he asked.

Sakura snatched it back from him.

"Superllama's a gift," she replied. "Get UP, Uzumaki Naruto, or I will MAKE you ge-"

"I GET it," Naruto groaned, scooting out of his bed. His feet met the ground, and he jerked them back. Looking down, he frowned. "Where are my slippers?" he mumbled unhappily, putting his feet down and standing.

"I understand why you like them."

Naruto glared at Sai.

Who wore his slippers.

"How do your feet even fit in those?" growled Naruto. "Give them back!"

Sai made no move to do so.

"Make me," he replied, lifting an eyebrow.

_"Dobe."_

The memory reared forth like a tsunami from the ocean, and Naruto's eyes flashed as he leapt at Sai.

"They're MINE!" he snarled. "Give them BACK!"

"Uzumaki Naruto, stop it this INSTANT!"

The words were followed by something small but immensely hard whacking his cheek, and Naruto flew into the wall. He felt blood in his mouth, and gagged; his jaw was lopsided, he could feel it.

"Sakuwa," he managed.

In response, she cracked her knuckles. On the other side of the room, Naruto saw Sai in a similar position as him.

"Promise to be good."

Another command.

He sighed. What had happened, that they had gone from best of friends to this...?

"Tch."

The sound came from Sakura. It made both him and her flinch.

The unbidden memories, which had begun to slink away, came back.

_"I'm leaving."_

_The words were spoken on a dark night, in a dark room, by a boy with dark hair and a darker past._

_"What?" Sakura and Naruto spoke at once, equal intonation of confusion in their voices._

_"I'm leaving," repeated Sasuke. He said it slowly, as if they were little children who had a hard time grasping an idea. Oh, they were children, and they did have a hard time grasping this idea._

_"You're joking," replied Sakura, nervously putting her book down beside her. She wore pink pajamas with bunnies on them, and looked all the world like a little bunny herself, young and cuddly and vulnerable. She leaned forward, her feet nervously kicking back and forth as they hung over the side of her bed._

_Naruto laughed._

_"Good try, Sasuke," he said teasingly, reaching behind his head and scratching the back of his neck. But the gesture was a sure sign of his apprehension. "But your jokes just get worse and worse."_

_Sasuke didn't blink while he looked back and forth between the two._

_Naruto saw Sakura's face grow pale. He felt his cheeks flush with anger._

_"You seriously fell for that 'OBC' crap?" Naruto shoved himself up from bed, lunging to grab Sasuke's shirt collar. Sasuke reached out and deflected Naruto's hand easily._

_"O-Sound has connections HEI doesn't," he said. Naruto growled. "There's nothing more I can learn from here."_

_"Bu-"_

_"Guys!" Sakura's voice cut through their argument. She stood, feet slipped into her favorite green flip-flops, arms placed gently but securely on each boys shoulder. "Let's go get ice cream."_

_She meant gelato, actually; there was a little shop across the street from the hotel they were currently at._

_Sasuke yanked his shoulder from her grasp and grabbed his jacket off his bed, where he had flung it upon entering the room. Naruto hastily pulled a shirt on. Sakura pulled a simple sweater over her head, not bothering to change._

_Sasuke me them outside the shop, silent as always, his eyes carefully watching them both as they joined him. No one spoke, except to order. Sakura slapped a fifty-dollar bill onto the counter and walked out, not bothering to collect her change. Naruto and Sasuke quickly gathered it for her and payed for their own, then hurriedly followed her. She stood by a streetlight a block away, leaning against it, her gelato untouched._

_"Let's walk," was all she said before taking off at a run, tossing her gelato haphazardly into the nearest trashcan._

_"Sakura!" Naruto called, looking around himself quickly. "It's not safe to run around at night!"_

_Beside him, Naruto saw Sasuke's shoulders heave in a sigh._

_"Tch."_

_And then he shot after the retreating pinkette's form. Naruto let out a moan and stuffed his food in his mouth, taking off as he did so. The cold dessert made his eyes bulge and his tongue to a little numb, but he ignored it, feet pounding against the cement pavement as he chased his friends._

"Naruto, snap out of it."

Sai's voice brought Naruto up from his dive into memory lake, and he shrugged his shoulders, as if trying to dismiss the past.

"Uhh..." he managed. Sakura shook her head, obviously coming out of her own reverie, and looked pointedly at each boy.

"I think you should see this."

The boys glanced at each other. When Sakura said _think_, she meant _demand_, and crossing her meant a kick to the stomach. The boys nodded as one and followed her as she led them down the hallway to her hotel room.

Separate rooms. Another reminder that the past was painful and changed everything.

She plopped onto her queen-sized bed and ushered the boys over. She picked up her IPhone (why she hadn't just brought it into their room, Naruto didn't know) and went to YouTube. Naruto slid onto the right side of the bed, sidling up to the girl for a better view, and Sai, after a moment or two of observation (no doubt to ensure he wouldn't receive a pummeling for copying Naruto's actions) did the same on Sakura's left. Naruto leaned over just as Sakura clicked play.

A youn girl with hair like night and eyes like stars greeted him. She was pale, unbelievably so, and sat in a hospital cot; no machines were near her bed, and the white walls bathed in moonlight only further enhanced the image of frailty about her.

Which was, ironically, a stark juxtaposition to her voice.

**"Hey,**" she said. Her voice was throaty, as if she were ill. Well, she _was_ ill, obviously, but...

**"My name is Hyuuga Hinata. I'm 17 years old and a huge Hei!K7 fan."**

Oh, Naruto's heart went out to her.

"Poor thing," commented Sai. Naruto didn't know if he meant it or not; you never could tell with that guy. "I wonder what hap-"

**"They say I have a year to live, if I'm lucky."**

A silence fell over the room, and Sakura paused the video.

Naruto let out the breath he had t noticed he'd taken.

"God..." he mumbled.

"She wants to see us perform," announced Sakura.

"I wouldn't mind," said Sai, "Except that we're booked for the year."

"She's only got a year," replies Sakura. "Look, this isn't just about her. See this?" Sakura ended the video and scrolled just a bit. Her finger pointed to the hit count.

Well, that silenced Sai pretty well.

"That's more than what Nyan Cat has," Naruto remarked quietly.

"Why do you know how many views that meme's got?" asked Sai dryly. Naruto smiled tensely in reply, turning his attention back to the subject at hand.

"That's not all," Sakura said, scrolling down to the comments. She pointed to a link supplied by a user called penguintejas. "There are over 2,000 people on this petition alone. And there's more than just one petition." Sakura went back to the video.

"Just think it over," she said, voice softer this time.

Naruto looked back to the screen as the girl like midnight introduced herself again.

**"They say I have a year to live, if I'm lucky."**

Eyes like stars met eyes like ocean.

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**AN: Thank you for lovely reviews! I love lovely reviews! Tell me what I can fix, or your thoughts or ideas or suggestions or... Well... Anything really! Just review!**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3

こんな夜に: On this night

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**Disclaimer: No own, no sue. Kapish? Kapish.**

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Chapter 3: Viral

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It was usually fairly simple to act nonchalant. After all, it was part of who he was: smooth, silent, intelligent, nonchalant. It was what he did, part of how he made a living.

So it was with great difficulty that Uchiha Sasuke managed not to scowl as he watched the number one video currently circulating YouTube. A sick girl from an illustrious family, complaining about her unfortunate lot in life, a flawless (if not sickly) face to match the plain setting behind her, as if to emphasize her loneliness and solitude, and a dream left unaccomplished before her impending, endless sleep.

A hand touched his shoulder, as if to coax him.

"Just consider it," said the voice. "After all, your former contract is terminated, is it not?"

Sasuke said nothing as the girl looked up at him, expressing her wish to see a certain band reunite for a final performance.

"I have no desire to participate," Sasuke replied coolly. If he felt anything towards the girl, it was far from pity. She was selfish. She had no idea what she was asking for; she was a stubborn little girl whining over something inconsequential. Not to mention impossible. "I refuse."

The low voice behind him sighed deeply.

"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke, you forget that your new contract dictates that you do as I say, not as you please."

Sasuke closed the window and swiveled around in his chair.

"I said no," he said darkly. A man with an orange mask chuckled down at him as Sasuke glared.

"You knew what you were getting into when you joined Akatsuki Corp.," said the man. He shrugged his shoulders as Sasuke's scowl deepened. "You accepted it without hesitation."

"I will not work with Konoha," Sasuke said; despite himself, he felt raw emotion seeping into his words, hot and furious. "I hate them. _ALL_ of them."

The figure leaned towards him, and as Sasuke stiffened, the man whispered into his ear.

"Then do this. Think of it this way: You want revenge. I want power. Let's bring them down from the inside, from their hearts... Starting with this one, ill, frail little girl."

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When Hinata woke up, it was not to sunlight streaming in through her hospital window.

It was from the unceremonious prompting of a nurse.

"Hinata!"

Hinata opened her eyes, blinking against the fluorescent lights in her room, which were now burning brightly.

"Wh-what?" she asked, sitting up. She winced, and the nurse hurriedly helped her lean against her stack of pillows, fluffing them and laying the Hyuuga girl on them carefully. "Shizune-san?"

The head nurse gave her a smile; Hinata couldn't fathom why. Shizune hadn't given her an honest smile since Hinata broke down in tears upon learning she would die. Mostly, the nurse would look at her piteously, and then plaster on a fake smile that couldn't contain the underlying current of pity.

Hinata hated pity. Hated it, _hated_ it, _**HATED**_ it.

"Go online," Shizune said by way of answer, shoving Hinata's orange laptop into the girls hands. Still slightly sluggish from having just awoken, Hinata lifted the lid and powered the laptop up. She glanced at Shizune (who nodded furtively) before double-clicking her Internet browser.

"Go to YouTube," the nurse said.

Hinata typed in the website domain as she reminisced quickly about her video last night.

It had been quick and simple, but it brought a smile to her lips to think about it. She had a sudden urge to turn to Shizune and tell her about it, but as the website began loading, she dismissed the idea. It was ludicrous. She didn't need Shizune's pity; she didn't need anyone's pity. The video had been a means of releasing her inner turmoil and pent-up emotions, and-

Her eyes widened.

... And it was at the top of the Featured section.

She heard herself gasp, which led to a bout of coughing, which led to Shizune hastily patting her back and smoothing her sheets.

After regaining control over her body, Hinata (fingers shaking, mind in denial) slowly clicked on her video.

She didn't watch herself. As soon as it began to load, she paused it, instead scrolling to see the comments.

_ penguintejas: Let's get KHDensetsu the dream performance she's always wanted! /densetsu-dream_forev... A last wish and a life-lasting memory for the Girl in the Moonlight!_ 879 thumbs up, 98 thumbs down

_PokeMan_321: KHDensetsu, my heart goes out to you. Bros, let's make a lady's dream come true! Sign this petition! tp:/petitioner/The-girl_In-the_Moonligh..._. 566 thumbs up, 172 thumbs down

_XFighting_DreamersX: Like this if you think KHDensetsu's one hot babe!_ 989 thumbs up, 24 thumbs down

Pages and pages of comments on her upload.

On her video.

About _HER_.

She looked at the monitor in stunned silence. Shizune excitedly prattled on beside her, but it was background noise; all that was playing in her mind was a jumbled mess.

_"They say I have a year to live-"_ **i** _"I wish I could live-"_ **am** _"It's so empty, just like my eyes-"_ **famous**_ "My name is Hyuuga Hinata. I'm 17 years old and a huge Hei!K7 fan."_

Hinata began to cough, so suddenly and violently that she felt her muscles constrict and her body flailing as she desperately, vainly attempted to breathe. Her vision swam, tears streamed down her face, her throat burned, oh God her entire _BODY_ burned, she was dying, _she was __**DYING**__-_

She barely felt a needle pierce the skin of her palm before something insanely cold swept through her entire body; she screamed, or at least thought she did, and then her eyes closed as the medicine knocked her blissfully out cold, numbing the searing agony destroying her from the inside.

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**AN: Thanks for reading! Sorry for the low word count; you know how hectic life can get sometimes. Besides, this fic is more about intensity than epic length (contrasting sharply with the light, cute fics I usually write) so I think the raw emotions conveyed are more crucial than the content I get across.**

**Okay, next chapter Hinata will finally meet Hei!K7 :D Review! I'm planning on having interactive stuff down here with readers (since I have senioritis already and am willing to procrastinate like crazy), so let me tell you some stuff real fast:**

**A) I love writing (duh) and enjoy growing cacti, B) I have dabbled in all the arts and support them all, and C) I'm an optimistic (albeit shy and somewhat nerdy, somewhat duncecap-worthy) girl who loves her reviews!**

**Your turn!**

**What do you think about the arts? Are you shy, bubbly, nerdy, goofball, etc.? Do you have a dream you'd like to have come true? And what's one thing interesting about yourself**?


	4. Chapter 4

こんな夜に"On this night" Konna Yoru Ni

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Disclaimer: I do not own this. I am, as Benjamin Franklin once referred to Vice President John Adams as, a Queen of "Superflous Excellence."

Let us have a moment of silence for all the braincells Chelty-chan lost while betaing this work. Thank you, Chelty-chan! I am so grateful to you~~!

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(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Chapter 4: Awaken

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She did not want to wake up.

But she forced her eyes to open when a young, high-pitched child's voice called her name.

"Hinata?"

The fluorescent lights brought tears to her eyes, and she rubbed them away tentatively, as if unsure of whether the gesture was appropriate.

"H-Hanabi?" she rasped; her throat was dry, and Hinata realized in a distant part of her mind that she was extremely thirsty and dehydrated, which meant she must have been out of it for at least four or five hours.

Her sister's pale eyes squarely met her own. She saw relief in her sister's expression.

Okay, so she supposed she must have been out of it for at least a day, then.

"Thank goodness you're awake finally!" Hanabi said loudly.

The volume nearly made Hinata wince, but she held back for her sister's sake. Hanabi was always unusually loud when nervous (or tense or pressured or relieved.) She was only truly quiet on the rare occasion that their Father allowed her to play video games; even then, the tapping and clicking sounds of the controllers, the sound effects and flashing colors of the screen on the television, and the soft echoes of her footfalls from excited jumps-in-place gave her presence away.

Hinata smiled softly; she felt the undeniable effects of the drugs still in her bloodstream, and any sudden movements were sure to cause either dizziness or sluggishness, neither of which Hinata was willing to show Hanabi.

Her little sister was going to remember her older sister as the somewhat healthy girl she had once been, not as the weak dying girl she was becoming.

"What's u-up?"

Hanabi's smile grew exponentially.

"You will NEVER believe your mind," her sister said, "but you're famous!"

"Hey, that's not how you tell a surprise to someone," commented a voice dryly. Hinata focused her attention to the doorway. Specifically, to the figure against it.

Hyuuga Neji, her cousin, leaned on the door lazily, hands in pockets, one leg up to touch the door with the bottom of his shoe. His long, straight hair was neatly tied back in a silver ribbon.

_"Isn't this pretty?"_

Hinata recalled spending hours unsuccessfully attempting to style her cousins hair when they were younger. He would always run away from her before she could catch him.

_"Please?" Hinata begged, holding a pink headband in one hand. Her other held the handle of a woven basket filled with ribbons, clips, pins, hairnets, and combs. The basket had been passed down to her from her Mother, and Hinata used it daily to supply herself with hair accessories. "Please, Neji?"_

_Her cousin, disgusted, age nine, scoffed._

_"No!"_

_Hinata stuck her lower lip out in a pout._

_"B-But Neji..." she stammered, "Isn't it pretty?"_

_Neji snorted, swatting the headband out of her hands._

_"That stuff is for girls and babies," he said dismissively, like that was all there was to the matter. Hinata scowled._

_"Is not!" she cried. "What about Daddy? Daddy wears his hair tied back sometimes!"_

_Neji rolled his pale eyes._

_"Exactly," he said. "That stuff is for girls and babies."_

_Hinata folded her arms, completely at a loss._

_"Fine," she huffed, tossing the contents of the basket over his head. He let out a yelp and she ran off, upset._

_Years later, after his initial hatred of her Father and her had begun to wane due to a "friends influence," as Neji put it, he had approached her as she was plaiting Hanabi's hair. Hands in pockets, he looked over her work, and then silently examined the container of ribbons she had next to her. Pleased that Neji was willing to spend time with them, but worried that any words she might say would scare him off, Hinata instead chose to let a slight smile grace her features. Fingers moving fluidly, she finished the braid, and then used her right hand to hold the hair in place; and with the left, she slid the basket of ribbons closer to Hanabi._

_"Which one d-d-do you want?" she asked, trying to keep her tone light._

_Hanabi, too, was happy about Neji's presence, because instead of her usual grey, which she chose whenever she felt that the day was going to be only average, she chose yellow, her customary color for exciting or special days._

_Hinata nodded and quickly tied Hanabi's hair together, evening the bow's loops and then running her hand loosely through the hair below to neaten it. Hanabi stood and turned to examine herself quickly, hastily grabbing a small hand mirror from the basket. She nodded, smoothed her hand over the top of her hair and waltzed out of the room. Hinata began gathering her things._

_Then Neji cleared his throat._

_It had been silent aside from the sound of rustling ribbons and shifting of hair since Hanabi confirmed her ribbon choice. The sudden noise from Neji made Hinta jerk, her hand knocking over the contents of the woven basket._

_Hinata let out a high squeak and went down on her knees, hurriedly gathering the items. Her cheeks burned._

_Neji must think I'm an idiot now, she thought, ashamed. Such an idiot._

_And then another hand righted the basket and dropped the remaining ribbons and clips into it._

_Hinata traced the hand to an arm, then a shoulder, a neck, a chin, a nose._

_Two glinting eyes of pearl staring back at her own._

_"Sorry," he said softly. She saw him reach into the basket without taking his eyes from her, saw him retrieve her favorite ribbon - a slim, silver scrap of silk - and watched him wordlessly tie his own hair back with it._

_It was a sloppy job at best, but it was wonderful to her._

_Wordlessly, she embraced her cousin, and together, they wordlessly promised themselves to end the strife between the branches of their family._

Hinata shook her head.

"I-I know," she replied. Her sister let out an excited squeal while Neji looked on in detached disapproval. "I n-never meant to be, th-though."

"Well, I'm glad you did!" Hanabi said, practically bouncing in the visitor chair by Hinata's bedside. It had obviously been brought in by a nurse, because it's blood red seat clashed drastically with the sterile plainness of her room. "Because now HEI!K7 said they were gonna come visit!"

Hinata felt the smile slip from her face.

"What?" she asked, voice low and croaking. She felt a cough coming on, but resisted it, pushing it down. "What did you say?"

Now it was Hanabi's turn to lose surety in her grin.

"Ah..." she drawled, "Umm..."

Hinata whipped around quickly to face her cousin.

Neji, unlike Hanabi, was not so easily intimidated by the sudden change in Hinata's aura. He did not move, just continued stoically watching his younger female cousins while he replied.

"HEI!K7 released a statement last night saying they would come to sing for you."

Pause.

Hinata felt her heart stop.

"O-Sound also agreed to cooperate with K7 in this."

Another pause.

Ah, her heartbeat was back.

She visibly relaxed, her shoulders slumping as she declined against her bed.

"Ah," she murmured to herself, "That's impossible." She was drowsy again; maybe it was of the adrenaline rush she'd just experienced. "Sasuke won't ever work with Hokage Entertainment again, so that's settled."

She closed her eyes and sighed.

"That's not the point," Hanabi interjected. "Even if Sasuke doesn't agree, K7 did."

Hinata's eyes snapped back open.

"Hinata," Neji said slowly, "They're coming today."

Hinata coughed lightly, gathering her thoughts.

"Well then," she began, but something was caught in her throat. She cleared it softly, then spoke again. "Well then, I guess I'll j-just have t-to turn them a-a-away."

Hanabi shook her head.

"Why?" she prompted.

Hinata looked her little sister on squarely.

"K7 consists of five people," she said. "Sasuke left th-the group, but he's u-unofficially still a member. He never terminated his c-c-contract with Hokage Entertainment I-Industries. They chose not to file a l-l-lawsuit against him, but legally, he's still a K7 m-member." She turned her eyes to look out the window.

The sky was somewhere in between blue and grey, and Hinata saw storm clouds far off in the distance.

"K7 can't r-really perform if they're not all th-there."

Neither of her relatives said anything in response to this, and for a moment, Hinata was confident in everything.

And then the phone to her room rang.

Hanabi picked up.

"Hello?" she asked into the receiver. Her eyes widened. "Wait, no, don't let-" she cut off, pulled the phone away from her ear in a horrified manner, and looked up to Hinata.

"What?" Neji's voice was tense.

Hinata felt her heart stop and knew what was coming.

"K7 is here. They're gonna be here a-"

The door burst open.

A flash of yellow practically pounced on Hinata's bed.

A blonde young man with blue, blue eyes grinned goofily down at her.

"Surprise!" he yelled; a pink-haired girl and black-haired boy appeared beside her bed as well to chorus the line along with the blonde.

Hinata felt the color drain from her face.

**Hei!K7**

**Members: Haruno Sakura**

**Sai**

**Uzumaki Naruto**

**Former: Uchiha Sasuke**

Uzumaki Naruto was inches from her face. THE Uzumaki Naruto.

Hinata felt blackness overtake her, and the last coherent thought she formed was: _Aww, dangit_.

* * *

****

AN: Wahahahaha, thanks for the reviews everyone!

**Thank you windtear- I promise you longer chapters~~! Same goes for you, Wild n' free! Thank you for reviewing!**

**xSmittenKittenx, I'm really awkward in real life, too! XD it's good to know I'm not alone in that X3 I also wanna publish a book one day, too! But I don't think I'll ever get around to it... I usually can't stand re-reading something I've written more than twice XD So editing is always a pain for me! And WHAT DO U MEAN U CAN'T WINK WHAT'S WRONG WITH U I CAN'T EITHER XD We're so alike :D**

**1rosiestar1: Yeah, I understand perfectly XD I'm supposed to be reading a textbook chapter right now, but it's**

**Sooooo long and soooo boring and I'm soooo lazy... Meh, it can wait another hour XD**

**kikigirl4321, I would just like to say that I am officially in love with you (not really lol, but I love to eat.) If you ever, and I mean EVER, have extra food goodies, ship 'em over! I will eat them, I swear I will! And do tell me when you're a famous chef; I will come visit you someday and order everything you can possibly make. And again, I will eat it all.**

**I'm also a goofball; you are not alone in that!**

**I'm sorry to hear about the disease. I don't know anyone who has that, aside from you, but i do have something called hypoglycemia (Lol im so off-topic now). I actually fainted a few weeks ago while donating blood because of it. Don't worry; we shall overcome!**

**Rabytte, I do not think you strange at all. I, too, found Sasuke's reaction to be humorous; I was smiling as I wrote it. I really appreciate The fact that you enjoy my story! ^^**

**White Hair and Violet Eyes, thanks a ton for your enthusiasm and support! :D**

**Thank you all for reviewing!**

**Next up, I want you guys to pick nicknames, because usernames take too long to type! (kikigirl, can I call you Master Cupcakes? XD) Gimme a shortened version of ur username, or just any old nickname, and we'll go from there! You guys can just call me myomi! X3**

**Ohemgee, I actually have a job. I'm ecstatic. It's only for a year, but a job is a job, so I'll take it!  
**

**_Beta Note:_  
**

**HEEEY EVERYONE! im chelty-chan! Now im not so sure I lost that many brain cells cos myomi is suuuuch an amaaaaazing writer she barely made any mistakes which makes me wonder if she even needs a beta, hehe ( + + )' hehe aww the reviewers are super mega awesome! I can totally relate to you guys, except I can wink Ha! (o -) see?! Heehe we have sooo much in common, AM HOME! Don't mind me im definitely a goofball too! And I tend to ramble all the time sooooo yeeah hehehe You amazing people are definitely my kind of people! Please keep the reviews coming cos myomi loves getting them almost as much as she loves eating…no really, plus they make her update faaaster, eh eh eh? You want quick updates right? So lets get reviewing!**

**Oh and if you do ill get her to write looonger chaaapters.. heehe see you next update guys, I better stop rambling before the a/n becomes longer than the actual chapter hahhaa that would be awkward am I right? Bye! 3**


	5. Chapter 5

こんな夜に "On this night"

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**Disclaimer: If I owned Naruto, I wouldn't need to worry about how I'm supposed to afford those outrageous college prices**.

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*´¨)

¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Chapter 5: Tremble

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_Whoops_.

Naruto could practically touch the tension in the air. It was... What was the word... TANGIBLE. It wasn't supposed to be. It should've been INtangible. But it wasn't.

Because it was tangible.

"Naruto..."

Reflexively, he leapt backward, and it was a good thing he did, because Sakura's knee came up where his groin would've been.

He repressed a shudder.

"What did you DO?!" screamed the pink-haired girl, green eyes on fire with fury. "You IDIOT, you can't just JUMP on a_ TERMINAL PATIENT_ and not expect CONSEQUENCES!"

"Ugly, you didn't do anything to stop him," Sai pointed out monotonously. Naruto realized Sai had entered treacherous territory with that comment, and if he weren't in danger himself, he would've felt sorry for his fellow bandmate.

But as it was, Sai's words attracted Sakura's wrath, and Naruto, spared from a broken nose, felt only relief.

_**WHAM**_!

Sai collapsed on his back, a yell released on his way down. He slammed into the cold floor and bounced, and did not sit up for quite some time.

Sakura, meanwhile, turned her attention to the girl who had fainted in the bed.

"No fever... No breathing trouble... No abnormal heart rate..." Sakura continued through a mental checklist, touching her palm here and there, mumbling sciency mumbo-jumbo to herself, and then repeating the process.

"Good to see you."

Naruto's eyes widened and he turned.

Neji stood against the wall, rubbing his arm and glaring. A little girl peeked her head out from behind the Hyuga's back, white eyes glittering with wariness and flitting Between the three K7 members.

"Neji?" Surprisingly, Sakura had managed to say the boy's name before Naruto could. She looked as if she'd seen a ghost. "What are you doing here?"

He raised an eyebrow in response.

"She's a Hyuuga," he said. "I'm a Hyuuga."

Oh, yeah. Of course. So simple. Now everything made sense.

_NOT_.

"What ARE you doing here?" Naruto reiterated.

Neji sighed.

Sai answered for him.

"Obviously, it is because he is related to her. Clearly," Sai continued, standing and rubbing his poor, beaten face, "He is close to her."

At that point, the little girl squealed.

"Wow! This is sososo cool!" She threw her arms up in the air and danced (yes, actually DANCED) around Neji, skipping happily and squeaking ecstatically. "The real K7 is here! Hinata is gonna be so psyched when she comes to! Eeeeeek!"

Naruto turned back to glance at the girl who had fainted. She was more vibrant-looking than the webcam had made her seem. Maybe it was just the sunlight, but Naruto thought her skin was much creamier, her hair brighter, her cheeks pinker. Maybe it also had to do with the fact that webcams, in his opinion, never did anyone justice anyway, but he preferred to think it was just that she was more vibrant.

She was more alive in real life. That made it even harder to believe that someone so young -frail, but definitely not weak- was going to die within the year. Especially someone who looked so... Normal. Not that she looked normal, just that she looked like she could be in school without any problems.

But that was just it, wasn't it? She did have problems, which was why before 365 days had passed, she would be dead.

It was horrible, Naruto decided. Awful, horrible, unfair, not right.

"Hinata faints frequently," Neji explained. Naruto snapped his attention back to the young man. "It comes with the disease."

Naruto thought he saw something stirring in his peripheral vision, and focused on it.

"What is it she has?" asked Sakura curiously. Naruto slowly turned his head to look at the Hyuuga girl. "I've never heard of anything like it before."

Blue met pearl.

"It doesn't matter."

There it was. That same voice, the voice that had made his heart stop on the computer. Not in a weird way, though. It just felt to Naruto like whenever she spoke, her words carried this unmatchable weight, this unimaginable intensity.

She spoke as if she had carried the world once. He realized she probably had.

"Oh!" Sakura whipped around, eyebrows lifted in surprise. "You're conscious!"

"Yes," the girl replied. Her eyes moved from Naruto's, and he relaxed, releasing a breath he hadn't noticed taking. She turned her white eyes to Sakura. "Thank you f-for your concern."

It took Naruto all of two seconds.

"Hey, you stuttered!" he exclaimed, excitedly pointing a finger at her. She faced him, blinking, startled by his outburst. "I've never known someone who stutters before!"

He saw her cheeks flare. She turned her head quickly to face the window.

"S-Sorry," she mumbled.

_Did I upset her?_ Naruto wondered, frowning. He had expected a smile, not a blush. Maybe he had unintentionally embarrassed her.

"It's not a big deal," he said. "You're not the first friend I've had who's had problems, after all. And you're pretty, too. I don't think I know any really pretty girls."

A second later, Sakura had made him the unconscious one.

* * *

Well. That hadn't gone as planned.

Sakura stood over Naruto, fist clenched and slightly bleeding, while Naruto's (most likely broken) nose bled out like crazy. Hanabi was shrieking, Sai was laughing, Hinata was staring in a horrified manner, and Neji was watching the scene unfold.

He almost wished he weren't.

Almost.

_A crumpled picture lay on the ground. Through the gathered crowd, he saw Naruto pushing through, making a beeline straight for him._

_So Neji decided to step on the paper. Naruto froze._

_Neji smirked._

**Twist**.

_The paper ripped beneath his turned shoe._

_Naruto was there in a flash, pushing Neji. He stumbled, dragging the paper and further destroying it. Naruto shoved him again, and Neji slammed into the wall._

_While he was momentarily dazed, Naruto grabbed the picture from under his shoe._

_The blonde did his best to uncrumple the photo, but Neji knew it was of no use. There was probably no way to make out anything about his cousin from the way he'd ruined the picture._

_Slowly, Naruto clenched his hand around the remnants of his cousin's paper face._

_"You are going down," he said lowly, slowly._

_"You don't decide destiny," replied Neji darkly._

_"Says you." With that, Naruto vanished into the crowd, blonde head flitting back and forth as he weaved his way out of school._

_Neji glared at the blonde's retreating head._

Yes, says me, _he thought_.

Fists seemed to do a pretty good job at knocking sense into people. Neji pushed off the wall finally to help Sakura pick up Naruto's limp form and place him in a red chair.

"W-will he be okay?" Hanabi seemed panic-stricken. "I can go get a nurse, a-a-and..."

Oh, great. If Hanabi was stuttering like Hinata, she was well beyond panicked.

Neji placed an arm on her shoulder, soothingly massaging it to loosen her tension (both mentally and physically).

"It's fine," he said. "That boy can take it."

**Wham**!

_Neji smirked as Naruto went careening to the hard ground. School had finished, and he and Naruto were duking it out in a conveniently-hidden place: behind a willow tree. The leaves snapped softly in the wind; Neji knew that, with the way the sky looked, the storm brewing above would whip the branches into a frenzy._

_His aim was to make sure Naruto was smack-dab in the middle of it to take all the hits._

_Naruto pushed himself off the ground, ever the ball of energy. Wiping a trickle of blood from his nose, Naruto's blue eyes gazed back at Neji unflinchingly._

_This made Neji's blood_ boil.

"_You can't change your destiny with this," he said sharply, hotly. He knew he should control his anger, but he couldn't - didn't_ want _to - put a stopper in the bottle of emotions he'd overturned. "Even if you land a punch or two, it'll do no good in the long run." Neji spread his arms. "I will always be better than you." He glanced up at the darkening sky. "And I will always..." _

_Just as a drop of rain plipped off the tip of his nose, Neji felt Naruto tackle him. _

_They fell in a tangle, brawling on the ground as thunder clapped overhead. The wind rustled the willow leaves as Neji broke Naruto's nose just as Naruto returned the favor. Yelling, he kicked Naruto off him; eyes watering, he tried to push himself up; and once again, Naruto was suddenly upon him, straddling him as he repeatedly bludgeoned Neji's face._

_"Don't you DARE," growled Naruto. Lightning crackled across the sky; its glow through the branches made Naruto's eyes flash an angry, stormy grey, tinged with the red of blood they both knew they were losing. "Don't you DARE talk about all that destiny crap to me." _

_Neji, with a painstaking moan, flipped Naruto off him. Scrambling up, he backed into the trunk of the willow, panting, vision blurred._

_Naruto stepped back, away from the tree. Water pelted down on them, and Naruto was immediately drenched now that the willow was not providing him shelter._

_"I control my own destiny," said the blonde. _

_The wind picked up._

_And Neji, leaning against the trunk of the willow, found himself in the exact position he'd wanted to put Naruto in: smack-dab in the middle of the willow's loose branches moved by howling wind_.

This was the first of many times when he would realize that destiny was not predictable, and that destiny would never control someone as high-spirited as Naruto Uzumaki.

Hanabi's eyes blinked up warily at him.

"I don't..." she began, then turned to looks at her sister. "Hinata...?"

Neji glanced up at his cousin.

He was very surprised to find her standing, walking over to look at Naruto.

He frowned.

For as long as Hinata had been here, he had never seen her walk. He knew she could, but she had never felt compelled to.

Until now.

His frown vanished.

This was good. This was progress.

His frown returned.

But even with progress, it was only a matter of time.

As he watched his cousin tentatively place her index finger in a concerned fashion on the bridge of Naruto's nose, he hopelessly wondered how destiny managed to control a girl as strong as her, as equally as unique as Naruto in her own ways.

Why was she the exception, the one destiny had decided to steal away, to claim as its own?

Why was it Hinata who had to die?

* * *

"So we'll be back!"

"Th-Thank you," Hinata said softly. Naruto (nose bandaged well) waved a final time, smile blindingly bright, before turning out of her room. Her cousin and sister left along with the K7 members.

Her heart finally, FINALLY slowed down.

After calling a nurse in to help, Hinata and Sakura had laid Naruto down on one of the small blow-up mattresses the hospital staff kept in case of emergencies or late work nights. Hanabi and Neji had gone off to find food (mostly because Hanabi needed to eat), and so it was a bit awkward for a few minutes. Sakura had made futile attempts at conversation with both Sai and Hinata; Hinata had been unable to respond with more than yes or no, and Sai had just grinned his fake grin and kept silent altogether.

Finally, Hinata managed to come up with a safe topic to talk about.

"S-So how does it feel, t-to be famous?" she asked.

Sakura tilted her head, considering the question.

"Well, it's sort of... Uhh..." She frowned slightly, still thinking. "It's... Well... We manage!" She laughed a bit.

"Ahh..." Hinata trailed off, unable to say more, but just as she began to fear there would be another lapse in conversation, Sai spoke.

"You're well-known yourself," he commented. Hinata saw Sakura nod, pink head moving vigorously.

"He's right," she said. "You're all over the Internet!"

Hinata blushed.

"A-Ah... Well..."

Sakura smiled at her.

It was at that point that Naruto had come to, and as soon as he had been properly re-bandaged, K7 decided to leave for the day.

But not before confirming that they would return later on in the week.

Hinata let her eyelids droop as she put her hands in her lap.

She remembered the first time she had come to learn of K7.

She had been in middle school. An old acquaintance (whose name she couldn't remember but whose eyes, she knew, were as bright blue as the sky) had introduced them to her. She did not at first like the band; they were a bit eccentric, and the music was very different from the more sedate music she preferred.

No, it was not until her acquaintance had lent her a copy of a live performance that she had enjoyed the group.

She remembered quite well the way they had made her feel. The lights had dimmed, but the crowd was too entranced to applaud or cheer. Slowly, a haunting melody wafted through the air, followed by eerily open chords, and then finally accompanied by a sudden, syncopated guitar riff.

As the lights flashed on in a blinding manner, Hinata was overwhelmed by sounds and sights.

Together, the singers of K7 sang, creating melodic, flowing notes that contrasted sharply with the syncopated, jumbled accompaniment.

**_I've searched blindly_**

**_For something that I can't see_**

**_Years and years I've tried to open_**

**_A closed door without a key_**

And then, the chords on the bottom dropped out, and Sakura sang alone; Naruto echoed shortly after, and Sasuke followed, until they created a complex net of imitating and clashing, dividing and crashing, quickly building up to the chorus.

And all the while, she could not look away from Naruto's face.

Of the three, it was blatantly obvious that he was the most emotionally involved. While Sasuke's talent and Sakura's musicality showed through their voices, Naruto's most distinct characteristic was his expression. Every word carried such meaning to him, as if he had connected to the text on a much deeper and more personal level; his eyes were pained, aged, lost, confounded, whatever they needed to be to get the words across, and Hinata felt drawn to him. It was not inexplicable; his here-I-am stage presence brought out her own longing to be able to be that outspoken, brave enough to lay herself out in from of others the way he did whenever he performed.

From that day forward, she was hooked.

She remembered Naruto's honest face. Her cheeks were flushed (of course) and she felt her lower lip begin to tremble.

_No_, she thought harshly, _Nonono I will not cry._

And the tears flowed freely.

* * *

**A/N: Wahoo! I feel so appreciated, everyone!**

**Rabytte, I shall hereby call you Thumper. ;P Thumper's my fave Disney character ever.**

**Whiiiiich brings me to my next question: Did you watch Disney as a kid? If so, who was your favorite character? If not, what did you watch/do as a child instead?**

**But yeah. So, I guess I should explain my whole job-thing. I auditioned for a vocal group and got in, so I sing at a church twice a ****Week and get paid once a**

**Month for it. It's really quite nice. :) **

**On a side note, though, I tried to make this chapter a bit longer. But guys: If you read this slowly (how I meant it to be read) you'll be able to experience the raw emotions involved in a more dramatic way. And we all love drama. So. Read a little slower. (Or go feast your eyes on Icewater - my best/longest/most popular story! :DDD OOOOR, go read my collab with Chelty-chan called 'Her Eyes Like Silver.'**

**Thanks to Chelty-Chan for being awesome, aaaaaas always! ^^**


	6. Chapter 6

こんな夜に: On this night

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_**Disclaimer: What? I don't own this story? *mindblown***_

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*´¨)

¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Chapter 6: Innocent

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It was around lunchtime when Hinata heard a great disturbance outside her room. She had just finished eating a tray of plain soup and crackers (she handy touched any of it); Shizune had only just taken the tray and left. In fact, Hinata was pretty sure Shizune's was among the voices growing in volume in the outside hallway. Curious, Hinata leaned forward in her cot, stifling an oncoming bout of coughs.

The muffled voices became louder and clearer.

"Miss, you can't go in there!"

"Only family is allowed!"

"Miss-"

And then a blonde young woman pranced into Hinata's hospital room, head held high, eyes focused and bright, smile wide, and gait purposeful. Hinata immediately registered how beautiful the girl was: her curves were subtle but definitely there; her high cheekbones and light skin further enhanced her blue, blue eyes; her platinum blonde hair was neatly pulled back (minus her long bangs, which swung gracefully in front of her right eye) in a high ponytail tied with a thin cream-colored ribbon that matched the stripe on her otherwise purple mid-thigh length dress; even in platform sandals, the girl carried a commanding and confidant air. Before the door to the room had swung closed, the blonde had crossed the room and plopped herself down in the red chair Naruto had dragged to Hinata's bedside the previous day.

"Hello, Hyuga Hinata," the girl said. Her voice was high-pitched and loud and assertive. "Remember me?"

* * *

_"You know your O-B-C's."_

_Sakura watched warily, cradling a beaten Naruto in her arms. Sasuke, panting, tensed in case the man in front of him attacked again, did not reply, glaring at the owner of O-Sound. _

_Orochimaru turned and walked out of the alley; a limo was parked just outside it, blocking the alley from being seen or accessed. He slipped in, lightly closed the door behind him, and the sleek vehicle drove away._

_Sakura was surprised when Sasuke did not turn to help her after a few moments. Naruto had been beaten unconscious, and Sasuke, too, was injured. Even Sakura herself had taken a few punches. She now struggled to heft Naruto up into her arms; she was only partially successful. His upper body sprawled in her arms, and his legs hung limply down to the concrete. Sakura's arms and legs shook from the effort of rising while holding the boy._

_"Sasuke," she pleaded._

_Still he did not turn. She cleared her throat, tried again, this time a but more demandingly._

"Sasuke."

_Nothing. Only - there! - his fists clamped tighter together. It was then that she saw the ripped clothing on his shoulder, and the quickly dampening shirt._

_"Sasuke!" she yelled. She couldn't move towards him - Naruto was too heavy - and Sasuke was so tense, like he'd gone into shock, except that couldn't be, he was Sasuke after all - but his shirt, oh God,_ his shirt - soaked - **BLOOD** -

_Sasuke fell to his knees, moaning, and Sakura quickly put Naruto in the ground, rushing to the Uchiha's side._

_"Sasuke, Sasuke, Sasuke," she cried, and he leaned into her arms, and she looked at the wound._

_Blood._ So much blood._ Her vision blurred, and she snapped her eyes towards Sasuke's face. He moaned, eyes closed tight in pain; his hands crushed her own, and she held him, trembling, worried about Naruto lying on the pavement behind her, worried about herself - things were blurry, was this what being near-unconsciousness felt like? - and worried about Sasuke, her dear Sasuke, her Sasuke, hurt, and she couldn't do anything about it, couldn't help him, couldn't help her boys, couldn't do_ anything-

_Tears streaming down her cheeks, Sakura lifted her head and screamed._

* * *

When she had been younger, she had had friends. She didn't remember any of them, despite the fact that one of them had introduced her to HEI!K7. She owed her fangirling (and current circumstances) to that friend.

That friend who apparently was the blonde in front of her.

"I figured as much." Sighing, the blonde ran a hand through the loose bangs in front of her eye, sweeping it behind her ear. It did no good; the hair fell right back to its former position, even after being tucked behind the blonde's ear. The girl shrugged, smiling softly. "Doesn't matter. Fact is, you know now. That's what counts!" The girl clapped her hands together loudly. "I'm glad I found a way to contact you again! After sixth grade, I never saw you."

Hinata blinked again. The girl was not familiar to her, but there was something nostalgic about her nonetheless. Perhaps they _had_ met before...?

The blonde continued. "I found your video and knew I had to do something for you after all this time, so..." She leaned over, rummaging in her purse for a moment, before pulling out an IPhone. She slid her manicured finger across the surface, then leaned in close to Hinata, sharing the screen with her.

The girl was on Hinata's video.

She clicked the top comment.

"I got HEI!K7 involved. It started with a petition, but I have connections within the company, too." The blonde tapped the screen, enlarging it so the words were easily readable. "See this petition here?" She highlighted the user's name. "That's me."

_penguintejas: Let's get KHDensetsu the dream performance she's always wanted! /densetsu-dream_forev... A last wish and a life-lasting memory for the Girl in the Moonlight! 177 thumbs up, 99 thumbs down_

"Oh." Hinata realized the numbers on her video (as well as the likes and dislikes for comments) had increased by over a fourth since the last time she'd seen it. She resisted the urge to flinch.

She had never wanted the spotlight. She had never needed it; now she wanted desperately to be rid of the attention.

The blonde was not helping Hinata's boiling frustration.

"So we managed to snag over 2,000 petitions in just one or two days," the blonde said, "And the number's well over 5,000 now, but at the time it was enough to bring HEI!K7 into the deal." She paused, frowning. "Did you... not want this?" she asked hesitantly. She tilted her head to the side, and only then did it strike her.

Blonde. Blue eyes. Commanding presence.

Just like Naruto. Only she wasn't Naruto, she was...

Hinata shook her head, grinning slowly.

"No," she admitted, "But I... I'm grateful, anyw-way." She looked up into the girl's blue eyes - so like Naruto's. Maybe she was drawn to people like the blonde and Naruto, bright beacons in the foggy night that was her life? "Thank you, Ino."

The blonde stood frozen for a moment, but then cracked a huge grin.

"Yeah," she said dismissively, "Anytime, Hinata."

* * *

"Give me _ONE_ good reason not to fire you all!"

"You love us too much?" Sai deadpanned.

With a mighty roar, Tsunade hurled a stilleto at him. He leaned backwards, dodging it, then snapped back upright, fake smile brightly in place.

"Tsunade," Sakura said, hands cupped at her chest as she leaned warily agains the doorframe, "Can you just hear us out?"

That was, evidently, the wrong thing to say, as Sakura had to hurriedly run outside the room; Tsunade's mug (which she used to hold all her writing utensils) smashed into Sakura's previous location, shards littering the floor, ink oozing from pens broken by the impact. Sakura shivered, carefully popping her head back around the corner.

Tsunade would hear them out. Sakura knew she would; it was in her nature. Tsunade would listen to them.

After she'd attempted to mutilate all three members present.

"Look, Granny," Naruto said, "Who cares if we skipped a few rehearsals? People matter more than money!"

There was a pregnant pause in which Sakura wondered whether or not Naruto would get his skull bashed in, and then Tsunade heaved a great, big sigh. There was the telling groan of her wooden chair as she reclined on it.

Sakura smiled a bit.

_He always was the favorite_, she thought as she walked back into the room, standing in between her two male companions.

"I understand why you did it," Tsunade said after several moments. "I would have authorized it, had you asked." She shook her head, sighing again. "But since you didn't, I wasn't able to pull up a release form for her Father to sign."

Sakura's smile melted away. She felt Sai tense a little beside her as well, but Naruto was oblivious, nodding like an idiot.

"Another company approached her Father with an offer. He accepted... Provided I signed as well."

Now Naruto was confused. Sakura kept her jaw clenched.

"Wait," he said, confused. "What? What company?"

_It wasn't possible_, she reminded herself stubbornly. It was unreasonable to jump to the conclusion that...

Tsunade shook her head again, then reached into the bottom drawer of her desk. She came back up holding a bottle of sake, which she quickly unscrewed (which meant it had been opened before, Sakura realized). The owner and head of Hokage Entertainment Industries proceeded to down half the bottle.

All the while, Sakura slowly felt her breathing become more shallow.

"So," she said, in what she hoped was not a breathless voice, "We've put the company in a compromising position."

Tsunade slammed the bottle onto her table; the remaining few objects on the desk (a green porcelain image of a slug, a blue pen, a few loose papers, a framed photo) rattled with the impact.

"Not just compromising," she hissed. "Humiliating. _Debilitating_. Downright _DANGEROUS_."

It took all of two seconds for Sakura to forget that she'd been trying not to hyperventilate.

"Because the three of you decided to be HEROES instead of chugging through the formalities, Hokage Entertainment Industries has basically no say in what happens to her now."

Sakura shook her head incredulously. _It couldn't be. I didn't make sense. Why now? Why NOW, why to HER, why...?_

"I don't get it."

Sakura laughed at Naruto's naiivety. Poor, poor Naruto, sweet, wonderful, poor Naruto.

"Hey!" The blonde protested, frowning at her. Sakura rubbed her eyes; hopefully Naruto would think they'd come because of her laughter.

"O-Sound," she replied.

Naruto blinked.

Then, slowly...

"...What?"

"O-Sound approached Hinata's family with an offer," Sai supplied.

"An offer that leaves us no room for comfort," Tsunade added, taking another swig of sake. "O-Sound's going to organize everything." She looked up and met Naruto's eyes. "EVERYTHING."

Naruto was stunned speechless. Sakura retreated to a nearby wall, reclined on it, and then felt her shaky legs give way; she slid down the wall, falling into a crumpled position.

She let out a whimper.

_What's Sasuke doing?_ she wondered.

"Why?" she asked instead.

They all knew what she was really asking. Tsunade sighed, put her bottle down, and threw her head back in her chair, tilting it backwards as far as it would go without toppling.

"Akatsuki just bought O-Sound out, that's why," she replied.

Sakura snapped her head up, her tears and personal agony forgotten.

"Sasuke's taking orders from...?"

Tsunade didn't answer; she just righted herself, chugged the rest of her bottle, and flung it at the door to her room. It shattered, joining the scattered remnants of what used to be the mug.

Sakura figured the remnants of K7 were down there somewhere, too.

**A/N: Chika-Chika-Boom-Boom!**

**I live. Hoo-rayyy. **

**Not much to say this time around. Be sure to pray for/support the friends and families of victims of the shooting in Connecticut. If you have a moment of silence at school, take that time to think about them, and all those who've died, such as our soldiers, and remember the valiant efforts of the faculty who gave their lives trying to protect those little innocents. Be safe, and happy holidays!**


	7. Chapter 7

んな夜に: On this night

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**Disclaimer: I do not like college right now... I do not own Naruto, either.**

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¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Chapter 7: Fall

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"Dad?"

Blinking, still groggy from sleep, Hinata sat up as straight as she could. For a moment it worked, but then the pain came, sudden and quick and of course it _would_ right then. Hinata doubled over, gasping, clenching her stomach, her chest, her throat, streams of agony trickling throughout her body, and OH GOD IT HURT-

"Hinata?!"

No, it wasn't her dad, it was Neji.

"N-Nurse," she managed in between sobs. "G-G-"

He was out the door before she formed any more words, barreling down the hallway, turning a corner before the door was even halfway closed.

And she was alone.

Gasping. Dying. She clutched at her stomach. God, it _HURT._

How many times had this happened? Too many. She'd lost count, long before she'd been diagnosed.

Moaning, she reclined, gritting her teeth as new pain flashed through her abdomen. She couldn't breathe properly. Oxygen came in quick, stunted gasps brought on by the agony shooting through her. She threw her head back onto her thin pillow, hands clenching at her stomach. She resisted the urge to claw at the pain; it was futile, and only made the pain double when she did that. Hands shaking, she instead reached out to either side of her cot. She grabbed at the sheets on either side, eyes tearing up as pain slashed across her sides. She clenched her hands tightly around the sheets, pulling as hard on them as she dared, and let out a cry. The pain was traveling to her lower back, up her spine, up, up, _up_-

The doors slammed open and Shizune darted in behind Neji. A third figure slid in quickly, and Shizune mumbled something Hinata didn't catch.

Her vision was blurring.

She let the tears slide down her cheeks, sobs wracking her body. Her neck. It was at her neck now, traveling downward like sand trickling down an upturned hourglass. It poured into her chest, her lungs- now she COULDN'T breathe, and it was horrifying. It still scared her, panicked her, to not be able to _breathe_-

Hands quickly reached out and began massaging her shoulders.

Suddenly, air.

She coughed. Sweet air. The pain was still in her neck, and it made her shudder with renewed vigor. At least she could breathe. Still, Hinata kept her hands to her sides, knuckles going white from her death grip.

The hands slowly traveled up, massaging her upper arms, her neck, and then they gently coaxed Hinata into a sitting position. She let out a whimper; the pain had retreated to her spinal column again, racing downward.

The hands followed it, massaging her back, then her lower back, then all around her thighs, then her sides, her stomach.

The pain did not go away, but it receded to little more than a light twinge right above her belly button. She could deal with that.

She closed her eyes, catching her breath, trying to steady her trembling body, and hands gently stroked her head.

Once she was in control of herself, she inhaled deeply and opened her eyes.

A blonde woman stood leaning over her. She was buxom and didn't look a year over 35, with her hair tied back in a rather youthful style of pigtails that Hinata thought suited her.

"Th-That..." Hinata cleared her throat, absently rubbing her tummy. "How did you...?"

The woman smiled.

"It's only temporary relief. But I'm sure it feels wonderful, huh?"

Hinata nodded.

The woman turned to Shizune.

"It looks like you guys have never seen a case this far along, huh?"

Shizune shook her head.

"Actually, none of the doctors have ever seen it before." She shrugged. "To be honest, I'm not even s-"

"Hinata, are you okay?"

The doctor and nurse left to give the cousins some privacy. Neji approached Hinata slowly.

Concern was written all over his face, and Hinata felt her cheeks warm. She turned away.

"I'm sorry... I'm sorry you had to see that."

She felt Neji tentatively place his hand on her shoulder.

"It's all right."

He gave her a warm smile. It was something she'd rarely seen and scarcely been on the receiving end of. She managed a smile somehow.

It'll be fine, you'll see.

_Her mother, brushing her hair while she sat in the older woman's lap._

_"But what if they don't like me?" she asked her mother, nervously fingering the bottom of her uniform top. Her mom put the brush down on the counter, put her hands over Hinata's much smaller ones, and kissed the top of her daughter's head._

_"Shhh. Don't worry."_

_In the corner of her eye, Hinata saw her older cousin peeking through the doorway._

_"It'll be fine, you'll see."_

Neji was a man of few words. Even before he'd come to terms with their family's disfunctionality, he had never said more than he felt he needed to.

She understood. For the most part, she was the same way.

So she managed a smile in return.

* * *

"Told ya I'd be back!"

Hinata grinned up at Ino. Her friend from middle school had promised to return, and indeed, she had.

Naturally, visiting hours hadn't begun yet.

Truthfully, Neji shouldn't have been there, either, but because he was family (and, Hinata was convinced, because most of the nurses had a thing for him) he always managed to get around the restrictions.

It seemed Ino could, too.

"Oh, no, you don't!"

Then again...

The blonde woman from earlier barreled into the room.

"You know the rules, Yamanaka!" The woman crossed her arms, white lab coat fluttering from the movement. "No fraternizing until the nitty-gritty's been worked out."

... What?

Ino shook her head, throwing her head back and laughing. It was a pretty little sound. And it wasn't actually little; Ino's laugh was less like chiming bells and more like banging gongs.

"You're outta luck," Ino replied. "I'm visiting an old friend, and I'm not a press slave anymore, either." She reached into her purse and tossed a small paper at the blonde. "I got promoted."

"Editors don't get special exemptions," the doctor replied. "Didn't they tell you that?"

Hinata looked to Neji, only to find him staring back.

_So he's as lost as I am,_ she concluded.

Ino turned to Hinata.

"Tell her," the younger blonde said. Or, rather, demanded. Ino was pretty commanding. "Tell her what I am to you."

Hinata blinked.

"Uhm... My friend f-from middle school."

"Ha!" Ino whirled around triumphantly, long hair spinning behind her in its ponytail. "See? We're friends. No need to get so worked up over that!"

The doctor let out a huff.

"That doesn't make me any less suspicious, Yamanaka."

Ino harrumphed.

"I'm not trying to sneak an interview!" she said (loudly). "I'm not like those other paparazzi scum working in the media department! I'm true to my word."

The doctor looked unconvinced.

"Yamanaka, I d-"

"Ino?" Both the doctor and Ino turned to look at Hinata. "What's going on?"

Ino ran a hand through her ponytail.

"Umm... Job stuff," she finished lamely after a minute or so. "Just Job stuff." She wheeled around. "And if you think I'm abusing my promotion, Tsunade, I-"

Hinata gasped. She couldn't help it.

Tsunade?

Had she heard right?

The doctor looked at Hinata, concern on her face.

"Are you okay, Hinata?" Her eyes furrowed. "You're getting pretty pale quickly."

Hinata shook her head.

"I-I'm fine..." She shook her head again. "Y-You're Tsunade... Of H-H..."

It did make sense, she reasoned. She'd read somewhere that Tsunade split her time between the company and the hospital, working part-time as a specialist doctor, frequently freelancing wherever her travels took her. She also had a knack for losing at gambling, and had a pet pig.

"Tsunade of Hokage Entertainment Industries," Ino announced when Hinata trailed off. "And I work in the media department as an editor."

Hinata wondered briefly if passing out was becoming less of an occasional happenstance and more of an annoying habit as blackness consumed her line of sight.

* * *

"The girl's ours now."

Sasuke didn't honestly care. If it had gone his way, he wouldn't have had to care either way, but as it was, he decided to show in his posture that the words meant nothing to him.

He crossed his arms and leaned back against the closed door.

And then rose an eyebrow.

The man behind the orange mask chuckled.

"You do have a way without words," he said. "We contacted the girls father earlier this week to negotiate an arrangement."

Sasuke didn't budge.

"It's like this: We proposed that Akatsuki Corporation monitor and schedule her involvement with HEI!K7 and you," the orange-masked man continued. "He agreed. He didn't really read the fine print once we showed him his daughter's emotional video."

Sasuke didn't need to see behind the mask to know the man was grinning.

"We now literally control every aspect of her interaction between your former teammates and the girl."

"I don't see how that helps us," Sasuke growled out. He was losing patience with this man.

"Careful, Sasuke." The threat was hinted, carried by the man's tone, but Sasuke understood the underlying meaning.

He clenched his fists and turned his head to the side.

"See, I think a direct approach wouldn't really work out the way we want it to," the man said. "This way, we can destroy the company slowly. They won't see it coming, and we can set an example with the girl."

Sasuke still didn't see the point, but he didn't say so.

But honestly, what good would a doomed girl do him? He wanted to annihilate HEI, not justK7. It wasn't worth the time of it couldn't bring them all down in one fell swoop.

He knew it was possible. He'd single-handedly brought about O-Sound's demise.

He was sure he could do it again with HEI.

"I doubt they'll go along with this," Sasuke said.

The man shook his head.

"We tightened their funding. You'd be surprised what our media connections can do with a few rumors."

He knew perfectly well. Akatsuki Corp.'s media monopoly was no secret. Their competition had been O-Sound and HEI's puny supporters, and now that O-Sound was gone, HEI didn't stand a chance. It seemed unfair, really, but Sasuke didn't play well with pity. He felt no empathy for HEI's dwindling control over social appearances.

"Tch. So they had no choice. When do we start?"

The man was definitely smiling now. Sasuke could feel the malicious glee emanating from him.

"Tomorrow, of course."

Sasuke did not reply, just turned his head away again.

* * *

**A/N: DUN-DUN-DUUUUUN! Drama-llamas return! I know I promised a more in-depth description, and hopefully this made things a bit clearer, but if not then please be patient with me! I promise things will make more sense as we continue our journey through this story!**

**On a side note, happy new years, everyone! (Er... So what if I'm a bit early?) Be sure to make those resolution lists long and happy!**


	8. Chapter 8

んな夜に: On this night

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**Disclaimer: They don't give these kinds of things to people like me, and I don't blame them.**

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¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ Chapter 8: Leap

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Naruto kicked a wood chip.

"This bites," he mumbled. He was leaning against one of the swing set's supporting beams. They were at the local park, hanging out on the playground. There were no children here. This area was technically under construction, but Naruto had snuck past the workers before. The place hadn't changed since then. It had been a piece of cake to smuggle Sai and Sakura in through the bushes as well.

Tsunade had strictly forbidden them from visiting Hinata again. Sakura had said that, the way she figured it, they could probably communicate via the technology at their disposal (Hinata's orange laptop had not gone unnoticed, especially by someone like Naruto, who was impossibly attracted to the loud color), but strictly speaking, Naruto felt like they'd nonetheless become constrained by Akatsuki Corp.'s forced contract.

It didn't sit right with Naruto. Not at all.

"This place has been under construction for years now," Sakura said behind him. The swing set creaked as she kicked her feet, slowly gaining momentum. Naruto turned to watch her swinging. "But they haven't even done anything to it!"

Sai, occupying the swing adjacent to Sakura's, shrugged. "Another tactic for money is to draw out the process. The longer it takes, the more money they make." Unlike the pinkette, Sai had no desire to swing; he simply sat, watching her just as Naruto did.

After a moment or two, Sakura had gone as high as she could. She grinned down at Naruto as she swing back and forth; gusts of wind from her movement blew Naruto's hair and tickled his face. He couldn't help but grin back.

And then his grin turned mischievous. He ran and pushed Sai out of his swing (the boy fell backwards with a satisfactory plop into the wood chips below) and then hopped onto it himself. He began pushing and pulling the chains holding the swing, and soon he was at Sakura's level, swinging in sync with her.

"Naruto!" she laughed, throwing her head of pink hair back, and Naruto copied her. Below, Sai called out their names.

As the wind rushed past him, Naruto remembered the last time he'd been here.

_Sasuke leaned against the support beam on the slide, eyebrow raised as he looked up at Naruto._

_"You're so immature," the Uchiha stated._

_Naruto stuck his tongue out in response._

_"Nahh!"_

_Sasuke rolled his eyes as Naruto let out a yell and dove head-first down the slide. It was a tunnel slide that circled around and around, like a covered spiral staircase with a ramp instead of steps. Naruto slid down, burning from the friction of skin against plastic, and finally crawled out when he reached the bottom._

_"You're too old for this," Sasuke said as Naruto rubbed his chafed arms._

_"No,_ YOU'RE _too old for this," Naruto replied. Oh yes, Naruto felt very witty. So he followed up with another zinger. "But not all of us think we need to grow up fast."_

_Sasuke's amused look gave way to a scowl. He walked towards Naruto and shoved him roughly._

_"Idiot."_

_Grinning mischievously, Naruto ran past his friend, making sure to shove his friend by his shoulder, and laughed, running to the stairs leading up to the playset. Just as he had expected, Sasuke tore after him, and Naruto scrambled up and ran across a rickety bridge. He hears it jingling as Sasuke pounded after him, and then they were at a monkey bar set. Instead of swinging across, Naruto quickly leapt on top of it, then ran across the top of the bars. He was always comfortable at this playground, and for some reason, things always went his way here. He didn't slip on the bars, nor did he feel any nervousness upon glancing below him at the ground a few meters below him. He hopped from the bars onto a tire swing, using his momentum to swing as far as he could before leaping off it. He turned around in time to see Sasuke duck below the bars and jump to the ground. Sasuke met his eyes, and Naruto turned around and ran again, heading for the swing set._

_He heard Sasuke let out a yell of anger when Naruto began scaling the side of the swing set. Straddling the bar that ran across the set and which held the swings in place, Naruto let out a wicked series of chortles._

_"Try and catch me_ NOW, _Sasuke!" he cried. Sasuke slowed as he neared the blonde. He walked below Naruto, stood on a swing, and with agility Nauto did not know his friend possessed, climbed up the flimsy metal chains tying the swing to the bar Naruto sat on. Sasuke pulled himself up, just in time for Naruto to leap off the bar and roll on the ground, taking off back towards the rest of the playground._

"NARUTOOOO!"

_Naruto laughed, laughed like he never had before, and clambered into the slide, heart pounding from the adrenaline coursing through him, hands burning as he scrambled up the plastic._

"Naruto, you're so immature."

Naruto turned his head to look at Sai, who stood grinning a fake grin at him. Naruto stuck his tongue out.

"No I'm not," Naruto protested.

"No, you are," Sakura said. "But that's part of who you are." Grinning, she let go of her hold on the chains of her swing and flew off the swingset. She landed a few feet away, wood chips flying out from the impact beneath her. Then she turned around, pink hair twirling around her, and stuck her tongue out at Naruto.

He grinned back, and pointed to the rickety bridge.

"Sai," he called just as Sakura wheeled around and took off for the steps leading up to the playground, "Take that side. I've got this one!" With that, Naruto, too, leapt off his swing, landed rather ungraciously, and bounded towards the slide.

For a brief moment, Hinata's face flashed in his mind. He wondered if she would have run off like Sakura had, would have called him immature, too.

He reached into his pocket as he reached the slide. As he crawled inside it and began climbing up it, he pulled his phone out and began recording a video.

* * *

_"What's your name?"_

_Hinata looked up, pearl eyes meeting blue ones._

_"Hinata..." She trailed off. She had never been good with introductions. _

_The blonde nodded her head._

_"Hyuga, right?" Without waiting to see Hinata's nod, she carried on, sliding into the chair beside her. "I'll be sitting with you from now on."_

_With that, she put her cafeteria tray on the table beside Hinata's homemade lunch and extended her right palm._

_"I'm Ino."_

_Hinata blinked, then smiled. It was a slight thing, but it was warm._

_"Yamanaka, r-right?" she mimicked. Ino smirked, inclined her head, and turned to her food._

_"We have gym together," Ino said. Hinata nodded and turned her attention to her own meal. The blonde continued. "And I bet we have some other teachers in common, too. Who do you have for English?" Again, without pausing, she chugged forward. "I've got Iruka. He's nice and all, but it's kinda boring, only learning the basics, y'know?" This was apparently a rhetorical question, because the blonde, after picking at her food for a moment with her fork, then sighed. "I_ hate _basics. They're important, I guess, but I wish we could skip 'em. It'd be a lot runner if we got to the_ REAL _stuff." She put her fork down. "Like journalism. I like journalism. Do you know what journalism is?" _

_Hinata opened her mouth to respond, but Ino beat her to it._

_"Of_ course _you do! Who_ doesn't? _Anyway, I was thinking of working somewhere where I can be a writer or something." She turned and looked around, then leaned in conspiratorially. "I've managed to do a few odd jobs for Homage Entertainment Industries!" _

_Hinata supposed this meant something big, because the blonde seemed very worked up about it. Not wanting to rain on the girl's parade, she offered up a "R-Really?" that made Ino begin to nod vigorously._

_"Just a few odd jobs," Ino emphasized. "Nothing special. Just things like delivering a few letters, a few papers, sometimes running a message between department offices." She leaned in close to Hinata. "But it's a start!"_

_Hinata nodded._

_"What do_ you _wanna be in the future?" Hinata half expected Ino to answer for her, but at the blonde's expectant gaze, Hinata felt her cheeks go red._

_"A-Ah..." she muttered, "I-I don't know yet..."_

_If this got Ino down, the girl didn't show it. She simply nodded thoughtfully._

_"There's plenty of time," she responded. "You don't have to have an answer right away." She shrugged. "I have mine, but maybe yours will come with time." Ino winked. "Just don't take too long, or it'll be a hassle trying to make a living."_

_Hinata shook her head._

_"M-My father wants me t-to be a doctor," Hinata said._

_"Well, I guess that'd make things easier," Ino conceded, "if you plan on spending the rest of your life in school."_

_Hinata shrugged, almost helplessly._

_"W-W-Well," she said, "Wh-What else could I do?"_

_Ino looked Hinata square in the eye._

_"Live your own life," she replied, "Not the one others want you to live."_

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**A/N: Just a fluff chapter. Happy New Year!**


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